`Tornado anxiety' hits residents

Posted: Wednesday, March 28, 2001

JENNIFER L. BROWNThe Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY - Cindy Crosslin still has flashbacks about the day she and her husband piled their two small children in the car to outrun a half-mile wide tornado rampaging through their town. Her 7-year-old daughter worries whenever it starts to rain.

"She's terrified," Crosslin said. "She asks if it's spring yet. She asks if there's going to be a tornado tonight."

Many in Tornado Alley used to believe they could protect themselves from twisters by covering themselves with mattresses and lying in their bathtubs or hiding in a closet full of blankets and pillows. That was before May 3, 1999, the day a tornado with winds in the range of 300 mph killed 44 people and blew apart homes as if they were made of glass. Some 8,000 homes were damaged.

Crosslin has dealt with her fears partly by getting a storm shelter installed. But others need more help: Therapists say they've seen more cases of "tornado anxiety" in the past two years, with patients suffering symptoms such as sleeplessness, hot flashes, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, trouble concentrating and depression.

"When spring comes, the phone starts ringing," said Angie Cunningham, a licensed professional therapist in Oklahoma City. "The minute the weather gets bad they start to get weird."

Tornado season is generally March through June in tornado alley - Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska and Kansas - and the rest of the southern United States. In the northern part of the country, it's May through mid-July. The National Weather Service says Oklahoma averages 54 tornadoes a year.

Cunningham said she counsels two types of patients who have extreme fears of tornadoes - those who have survived traumatic weather experiences and those who are prone to panic attacks.

"A lot of people came in last year when the weather started getting bad, saying 'I'm just really having a hard time,"' she said.

"The panic seems to set in when they're in the workplace and they see the clouds changing," Cunningham said. "They will catastrophize in their mind that there's going to be another big one. They will be of no use at work."

Near Camilla, Ga., where a tornado killed 18 people a little more than a year ago, community support groups still are counseling people who lost houses and loved ones. Shirley Chandler, a psychologist in the nearby town of Thomasville, said many of the victims are suffering from post traumatic stress.

"They talked about nightmares, flashbacks, the unhappiness," Chandler said. "I think that a lot of pastoral counseling has been going on."

In Tupelo, Miss., counselors are working overtime to help people affected by tornadoes that killed 15 people last month in nearby Pontotoc.

"We tell them `Whatever you're feeling right now is normal,' " said Drue Sutherland, executive director of Region 3 Mental Health Center. "It's not abnormal to wake up screaming, or to be afraid of loud sounds. This was a catastrophic event."

Oklahoma City therapist Charlotte Lankard likens the panic some feel to the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Any memory of the trauma can trigger a panic attack, she said.

"I can remember the first time I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a Ryder truck," she said. "It was this crazy feeling that I had to speed up or pull over so it could get around me."